Our Shimon Prokupecz is at elmhurst hospital. Shimon, what is the situation there . How is the hospital handling things . Reporter the hospital, obviously, is functioning. You know, one doctor explained to me, anderson, theyre learning tricks to cope with whats going on, and its become the new normal. The entire Emergency Department has basically been converted into covid care. There are some patients within the emergency room that are not Covid Patients, but almost entirely, some 150 patients inside this emergency room has turned into basically a place where Covid Patients are treated. The most serious, obviously, are those that are in Critical Care, that are in the icu, in some cases on ventilators. And whats happening is, is that its just one crowded space, what someone described as just stretchers from head to toe, everyone close together, doctors just trying to work on a lot of these patients in very crammed situations. And the thing is, we heard the governor talk about transfers.
Downslope that is going to be very slow. Yeah. And of course, we know families across the nation are finding new ways to celebrate easter and passover this weekend. Experts say social distancing and stayathome orders are working. And dr. Anthony fauci says a large number of antibody tests could be available within the next week. And President Trump is taking a slightly more cautious approach to reopening the economy. He says that hes looking at a date. He notes that nothing will happen until hes certain that the country will be healthy. Cnn National Correspondent Kristen Holmes is at the white house right now. Kristen, good to see you this morning. Does the president is it his authority to decide when businesses reopen and people go back to work . I just had people ask me that question on twitter because they heard that their governor may do so. Talk to us about where that authority lies. Reporter okay. So, lets break it down, christi, thats a very good question. The short answer is, n
Period. And then potentially after december 31st, it would be an additional 600 after that but were waiting for that. [ inaudible ]. How is that being distributed . Im sorry, which . 200 million that was announced yesterday, the day before the s. N. A. P. Funding. Oh, thats going to go through the normal process through the agencies. That will all go out immediately. Also back up in a similar way to the unemployment system or is that firing on all cylinders. Thats moving along. We havent had any issues. Saying that democrats want to see you replace joe biden on the ticket. What is your reaction, and what do you think of that . Would you consider doing that . Democrats would like to see me replace joe biden on the ticket . That is on one hand flattering. On the other hand, it is irrelevant. But to the extent its flattering, i appreciate it. Look. When i talked about keep politics out of this, everyone is everyone has been i hope its changing, but everyone has been very suspicious of gov
His state are stabilizing, but at a horrific rate. More than 780 people died in new york on friday alone. These are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain that we really especially this week are all 783 individuals and their families are in our thoughts and in our prayers. Meanwhile, the overall total in the u. S. Hitting a grim new milestone with more than 2,000 deaths in a single day on friday. That puts the total number of deaths at over 18,000 with more than 503,000 confirmed cases. We have a team of correspondents standing by to bring you the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. Lets start with cnns Cristina Alesci in new york city. Mayor bill de blasio had said Public Schools would be closed for the rest of this school year, but then the new york governor said, not so fast. Whats the governors reason for that . Well, the governor is challenging the mayor on this point about reopening schools because he says it needs to be a coordinated effort. That
Opening. The more testing we have, the more well open eligibility. Hopefully one day we get to the point where anybody who wants a test can walk in and get a test. Lets start in new york where Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state is, quote othe down side of the mountain. And he reports 1100 new cases and a slight uptick of more than 435 new deaths. Cnns Cristina Alesci is in new york for us. The governor spoke a lot about testing. He did. And he gave us the typical, yeah, but equation that cuomo gives. Both on the facts and on some color of perspective. His opinions on what the city and state are going through right now. On the facts, dramatically increased testing. The biggest piece of news on this is Antibody Testing and the expansion of Antibody Testing. Specifically for the front line workers who were the hardest hit. The ones who saw the most cases. Were talking about institutions weve been talking about for months now. Elmhurst, bellevue. Theyll be able to get access to Antibody